Exploring Barriers and Opportunities in Adopting Crowdsourcing Based New Product Development in Manufacturing SMEs

Crowdsourcing is an innovative business practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content or even funds by soliciting contributions from a large group of people(the ‘Crowd'). The potential benefits of utilizing crowdsourcing in product design are well-documented, but little research exists on what are the barriers and opportunities in adopting crowdsourcing in new product development(NPD) of manufacturing SMEs. In order to answer the above questions, a Proof of Market study is carried out on crowdsourcing-based product design under an Innovate UK funded Smart project, which aims at identifying the needs, challenges and future development opportunities associated with adopting crowdsourcing strategies for NPD. The research findings from this study are reported here and can be used to guide future development of crowdsourcing-based collaborative design methods and tools and provide some practical references for industry to adopt this new and emerging collaborative design method in their business.

Impact of the synergy between technology management and technological capability on new product development:a system dynamics approach

This paper employs system dynamics to explore how the synergy between technology management and technological capability affects new product development.The results show that the synergy between technology management and technological capability has positive impact on new product development.Moreover, the leading synergy processes between technology management and technological capability in different new product development stages are different.This paper deepens the theoretical understanding of how to achieve new product development, and also provides useful guidance for firms to implement new product development.

A comparison study of fuzzy-based multiple-criteria decision-making methods to evaluating green concept alternatives in a new product development environment

Purpose-In this paper,the four popular multiple-criteria decision-making(MCDM)methods in fuzzy environment are utilized to reflect the vagueness and uncertainty on the judgments of decision-makers(DMs),because the crisp pairwise comparison in these conventional MCDM methods seems to be insufficient and imprecise to capture the right judgments of DMs.Of these methods,as Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process(F-AHP)is used to calculate criteria weights,the other methods;Fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution(F-TOPSIS),Fuzzy Grey relational analysis(F-GRA)and Fuzzy Preference Ranking Organization METhod for Enrichment of Evaluations(F-PROMETHEE II)are used to rank alternatives in the three different ways for a comparative study.Design/methodology/approach-The demand for green products has dramatically increased because the importance and public awareness of the preservation of natural environment was taken into consideration much more in the last two decades.As a result of this,especially manufacturing companies have been forced to design more green products,resulting in a problem of how they incorporate environmental issues into their design and evaluate concept options.The need for the practical decision-making tools to address this problem is rapidly evolving since the problem turns into an MCDM problem in the presence of a set of green concept alternatives and criteria.Findings-The incorporation of fuzzy set theory into these methods is discussed on a real-life case study,and a comparative analysis is done by using its numerical results in which the three fuzzy-based methods reveal the same outcomes(or rankings),while F-GRA requires less computational steps.Moreover,more detailed analyses on the numerical results of the case study are completed on the normalization methods,distance metrics,aggregation functions,defuzzification methods and other issues.Research limitations/implications-The designing and manufacturing environmental-friendly products in a product design process has been a vital issue for many companies which take care of reflecting environmental issues into their product design and meeting standards of recent green guidelines.These companies have utilized these guidelines by following special procedures at the design phase.Along the design process consisting of various steps,the environmental issues have been considered an important factor in the end-of-life of products since it can reduce the impact on the nature.In the stage of developing a new product with the aim of environmental-friendly design,the green thinking should be incorporated as early as possible in the process.Practical implications-The case study was inspired from the previous work of the author,which was realized in a hot runner systems manufacturer,used in injection molding systems in a Canada.In a new product development process,the back-and front-ends of development efforts mainly determine the following criteria:cost,risk,quality and green used in this paper.The case study showed that the three fuzzy MCDM methods come to the same ranking outcomes.F-GRA has a better time complexity compared to the other two methods and uses a smaller number of computational steps.Moreover,a comparative analysis of the three F-MCDM methods;F-PROMETHEE II,F-TOPSIS and F-GRA used in ranking for green concept alternatives using the numerical results of the case study.For the case study;as seen in table 20,the three F-MCDM methods produced the numerical results on the rankings of the green concept alternatives as follows;{Concept AConcept C-Concept B-Concept D}.Social implications-Inclusion of environmental-related criteria into concept selection problem has been gaining increasing importance in the last decade.Therefore,to facilitate necessary calculations in applying each method especially with its fuzzy extension,it can be developed a knowledge-based(KB)or an expert system(ES)to help the DMs make the required calculations of each method,and interpret its results with detailed analysis.Originality/value-The objective of the research was to propose a F-AHP based F-MCDM approach to green concept selection problem through F-PROMETHEE II,F-TOPSIS and F-GRA methods.As the F-AHP is used to weight evaluation criteria,the other methods are respectively used for ranking the concept alternatives and determine the best concept alternative.

A Bounded Commitment in Vertical Collaborations of New Product Development

Uncertainty is a main source of opportunistic behaviors in research and development cooperations,which challenges strategic decisions ranging from investments to operations.To avoid opportunism arising in cooperations,commitments(either formal contracts or informal communications)are generally made in advance by members of an alliance.However,how does a commitment encourage R&D investments and ultimately enhance the total performance,without loss of flexibility in ex post operations?This study attempts to answer this by investigating a bounded commitment in the context of vertical collaborations in a supply chain.In this exploratory study,a 3-stage game model is used(by backward induction)to examine a two-echelon supply chain under a bounded commitment in NPD.Our analysis shows that upstream R&D investment is stimulated more and that both members are better off under the bounded commitment.At the same time,when the relative bargaining power between the supplier and the manufacturer falls into an appropriate area,it is possible to reach a bounded commitment,and the manufacturer is more sensitive to this relationship.Finally,the bounded commitment restrains opportunistic behaviors,but there is no strong sign that an increase in the ratio of the order outside the chain to the inside one can make firms better.

Development of New Products——A Must for the Development of Enterprise

Jiangsu Feng Ming Group is a large and comprehensive provincial foodstuff enterprise group combining research, development, production and operation, trading and circulation and service. Over the past few years, on the basis of the processing of fruits and vegetables and taking its name brand products as the lead, the group has

New development of whey protein products as nutritional food ingredients

Whey protein products provided ideal ingredients for nutritional food applications.Whey proteins are known to have high nutritional quality due to their high content of essential amino acids,high digestibility and biological value.Research in the past decades has shown that many of the whey protein fractions and peptides derived from them possess various biological activities.The technology developments in the last decade,such as those in the areas of protein fractionation technologies have made industrial scale production of fractionated whey protein products commercially feasible.The development in hydrolysis technology and the peptide analytical capability allowed production of whey protein hydrolysates with designed bioactivity and functionalities.People are continuously finding new biological activities of the various whey protein fractions or their hydrolysis products.Significant amount of research has also been carried out to study the clinical benefits of some of the whey protein fractions and whey protein derived peptides.Examples of these studies will be reviewed and discussed.

Product development of Baosteel HFW 610 Mill

Baosteel’s high-frequency electric resistance welded(HFW) 610 longitudinal seam mill(8 5/8″-24″, the yearly output 300000 t) and UOE 1422 longitudinal submerged arc welding(SAW) mill(20' -56',the yearly output 500000 t) are established in 2005 and 2008,respectively.Product specification covers whole of API 5CT standard and most of API 5L standard,terminating the history of manufacturing the medium and large size pipes at Baosteel.The yearly output increased from 1,200000 t to nearly 2000000 t.HFW 610 mill is oriented at mid size pipes,which are mainly linepipe and welded casing.The designed yearly output of HFW mill is 300000 t,including casing of 90000 t,linepipe of 180000 t,round structural pipe of 15000 t and rectangle structural pipe of 15000 t. The yearly output of oil casing line supporting the welding line is 120000 t,among which including welded casing and seamless casing of 30000 t.Baosteel’s HFW 610 longitudinal seam mill was established on October 27,2005. After the equipment trial run In October,2005 - March,2006 and equipment function examination In April,2006 - June,2006,mass production started in July 2006.And in December 2006,monthly designed capacity was achieved,reaching to 30496.644 t in welding pipe and 28 349.939 t in finished pipe.The output of 2006,2007, 2008 and 2009 was 117 067 t,223 554 t,255 791 t,and 204 424 t,with the comprehensive yield ratio 79.4%, 87.8%,90.80%and 91.92%respectively.This study introduces Baosteel HFW 610 Mill which is the world class,energy conservation and environmental protection enterprise,including product orientation,process and new product development.

Development of Educational Programs for System Creators and Business Producers in Future Strategy Design Based on Action Project Group Activities through Industry-University Cooperation

Our Japanese industry-university project group of Aoyama Gakuin University investigated and studied new educational programs to cultivate“future strategy design”human resources over several years.The purpose of this research paper is to describe two types of educational programs.The first program proposes the system creator,which is capable of new product design and innovative management that use advanced technologies such as internet of things(IoT),artificial intelligence(AI),and augmented and virtual reality.The second program proposes the business producer that is capable of platform service business modeling,product development and strategy,and customer service.The characteristics of these programs involve applying new educational methods to combine project-based learning(PBL)and active learning.

维生素C产业现状与发展

介绍了国内外维生素C的生产和销售状况 ,综述了Vc新产品的研发现状。

新产品全程营销概论

全程营销强调将市场营销理念贯穿于新产品构思、研发、市场化的全过程。为满足顾客需求,实现公司利益和长远发展目标,应弄清新产品全程营销的内涵,详细分析其全生命周期营销和整合营销的特点,以此为新产品开发管理提供新的思路和方法。

我国模板与脚手架新技术发展的几点意见

针对我国新型模板和脚手架推广应用过程中，大家关心的问题，阐明了胶合板模板和钢框胶合板模板应是模板技术的发展方向、开发高质量的竹胶合板模板、采用低合金钢管脚手架逐步取代普碳钢管势在必行及加强产品质量监督和管理等８

新产品开发战略的探讨

本文倡导企业在实施新产品开发战略时,应打破传统的成本、市场竞争模式。要以产品本身为中心。立足于客户的角度,根据本企业的实际情况,拓宽思路,建立适合自己独特的新产品开发战略。

Big Data Knowledge Pricing Schemes for Knowledge Recipient Firms

Big data knowledge,such as customer demands and consumer preferences,is among the crucial external knowledge that firms need for new product development in the big data environment.Prior research has focused on the profit of big data knowledge providers rather than the profit and pricing schemes of knowledge recipients.This research addresses this theoretical gap and uses theoretical and numerical analysis to compare the profitability of two pricing schemes commonly used by knowledge recipients:subscription pricing and pay-per-use pricing.We find that:(1)the subscription price of big data knowledge has no effect on the optimal time of knowledge transaction in the same pricing scheme,but the usage ratio of the big data knowledge affects the optimal time of knowledge transaction,and the smaller the usage ratio of big data knowledge the earlier the big data knowledge transaction conducts;(2)big data knowledge with a higher update rate can bring greater profits to the firm both in subscription pricing scheme and pay-per-use pricing scheme;(3)a knowledge recipient will choose the knowledge that can bring a higher market share growth rate regardless of what price scheme it adopts,and firms can choose more efficient knowledge in the pay-per-use pricing scheme by adjusting the usage ratio of knowledge usage according to their economic conditions.The model and findings in this paper can help knowledge recipient firms select optimal pricing method and enhance future new product development performance.

浅谈“代表先进社会生产力发展要求”是对历史唯物主义的新发展

江泽民同志关于我们党始终代表中国先进生产力的发展要求的论断,站在历史唯物主义的角度,揭示了中国共产党兴旺发达的根本动力。